Chapter 1: Swimming Goggles and a Tea Egg

As the year shifted into October, the weather in City-Z was constantly dismal. It drizzled unceasingly, wet and cold — it was as if the entire city had fallen into a gloomy and hazy impressionist painting. Even the mood of the people in the city seemed to have been soaked by the rain, becoming wet and heavy.

Such bad weather persisted until the day Yun Duo云朵: Literally translates to 'Cloud', but since this is a character's name, I'm going to keep it in pinyin. (This ain't Final Fantasy. :p) Still, the meaning behind the name is rather cute, especially in this context. came to City-Z. On that day, the skies suddenly cleared up and turned sunny. The long-unseen sun hung high above, radiating crisp golden sunlight down on everything beneath it, instantly changing the city into a bright and vivid oil painting.

"What a hospitable city!" Yun Duo could not help but sigh in awe. She was carrying a large backpack, a hand supporting the camera hanging down in front of her chest, while her other hand held onto a plastic bag with a tea egg in it. It was a leftover tea egg from her breakfast — she could not bear to waste food, and so had carried it with her all this while.

Walking alongside her was a short, middle-aged man. Yun Duo addressed him as 'Teacher Sun'孙老师: It's common in Asian cultures to call teachers 'teacher' and use it as a form of address with a teacher's surname. Here, 'Sun' is this person's surname.. She had started working at "Sports Weekly"A sports publication. after graduating from university this summer, and Teacher Sun had been mentoring her since then. Now, she had just passed her probation period.

Teacher Sun turned to glance at her and smiled. He was someone who liked to smile and always treated others kindly. Teacher Sun teased her, saying, "Yun Duo, what are you thinking? Carrying a tea egg to a swimming hall?"

Yun Duo smiled sheepishly, tying the plastic bag up with a knot and tossing it into the spacious pocket of her coat.

Teacher Sun then asked her, "Are you nervous for your first official interview?"

Yun Duo carefully examined her feelings for a moment, then answered, "Nope, I'm not nervous! After all, I have you to cover for me!"

"Oh you!" Teacher Sun shook his head, "Next time there's an event like this, I'll let you go handle the interviews on your own."

Yun Duo knew he was only joking — for a grand event such as this one, how could a small fry like her be allowed to go conduct interviews on her own?

Yes, a grand event. In the swimming hall ahead of them, the annual national swimming championships was being held.

For a long time, swimming had not been a sport which received much attention in China. A world champion in swimming was valued far less than an ordinary national soccer athlete, even if the latter may not have accomplished much in his field.

This slightly awkward situation remained unbroken until last year's Olympics. The Chinese prodigy Qi Rui-Feng emerged in the Games, winning a gold and two silvers in swimming events and also breaking a world record, making China proud.

Such great results naturally set off a wave of swimming fever within the country.

By the time Yun Duo arrived at the swimming hall, there were actually no empty seats left. It was clear to see how passionate and enthusiastic the crowd was. On the west stands, a large group of people were waving flags and shouting at the top of their lungs. The slogan on the flags read: 'Qi Rui-Feng, good luck!'

Besides that, there were all sorts of posters and signs being shaken around, all of them filled with words of encouragement and love ... from the looks of it, the atmosphere was really like a superstar's reception.

Swimming competitions were typically brief. Those who would invest so much into cheering despite the low value-for-effort rate must be true fans.

'As expected of an Olympics champion!' thought Yun Duo. Even his true fans were a grade higher than others'.

These true fans could not be blamed for being so wild, because Qi Rui-Feng was participating in the following events today: the men's 100-metre freestyle preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals.

Qi Rui-Feng's specialty was long-distance swimming — his Olympics gold medal was from the 1500-metre freestyle. He probably signed up for the 100-metre swim this time just because he wanted to try it out and challenge himself.

Of course, in the eyes of his fans, their Qi Rui-Feng was bound to be just as invincible even if he was participating in the 100-metre freestyle.

In fact, this confidence they had in him was not unfounded, because Qi Rui-Feng subsequently placed first in both the preliminaries and the semi-finals.

'As expected of an Olympics champion!' Yun Duo marvelled once again.

Unfortunately, this Olympics champion was somewhat of a bigshot — as soon as the preliminaries and semi-finals were done, he left via the passageway for athletes. The reason being that he did not want his performance in the competition after this to be affected due to any press interviews.

Those who wanted to interview him could only wait till the finals were over.

The reporters did not dare to complain; all of them waited meekly in the exclusive press area. As the finals were about to start, Teacher Sun made preparations for their team to snatch a good position for the interview later. Worried that Yun Duo would not be able to run quickly with her large backpack, he even took the initiative to shift the bag over onto his own shoulders.

Yun Duo craned her neck to watch the athletes enter the hall. The athletes were all very unreserved, stripping off their clothes as they walked. Broad shoulders, large abs, and long legs were the standard for these professional swimmers. Although Yun Duo had seen this many times before, she still found her eyes dazzled by the display.

Almost all of the reporters were staring at Qi Rui-Feng, who was at the fourth lane. From the moment he had shown his face, the fans had not stopped screaming and shouting, "Qi Rui-Feng! Champion! Qi Rui-Feng! Champion!"

The athletes prepared themselves, like taut bowstrings ready to fire. Following the firing of the gun, they dove swiftly into the water, slicing through the surface of the water like swordfish, surging forward through the waves.

Yun Duo was not able to appreciate the allure of swimming very well. The greatest impression this race left upon her was: Fast, too fast.

And also, noisy, too noisy.

From the moment the athletes entered the water, the shouting in the hall was driven up by a notch. Yun Duo's ears were ringing, leaving her dazed for a good long while.

The 100-metre freestyle ended within one minute. Yun Duo's ears were still ringing when Teacher Sun patted her on the shoulder. "Duoduo, get ready!"

Teacher Sun was naturally very anxious; the athletes were all already back on land and Qi Rui-Feng was heading their way — when should they act if not now?!

The reporters swarmed forwards, and without exception, all of their sights were set on Qi Rui-Feng. Qi Rui-Feng was a hot topic of conversation recently, what with a girlfriend being exposed and news of conflict with his coach ... the reporters all stared at him with ravenous hunger in their eyes.

Due to reacting half a beat too slow, Yun Duo could only stand by and watch from the periphery. She could no longer find Teacher Sun in the throng ...

As the other athletes walked by, Yun Duo decided that she might as well stop one of them for a quick interview since she was free anyway. She was just about to speak when her vision flickered.

This person, uh, is just too handsome ...

He had already taken off his swimming cap and goggles, but droplets of water still clung to his face. Perhaps because he was often soaking within water, his skin was remarkably white. His face was small, and the bridge of his nose was tall and straight. The outer corners of his eyes were raised slightly like a cat's, and noble eyebrows framed a pair of eyes as bright as stars which were currently peering so intently at Yun Duo that she felt self-conscious.

Under his clean and candid gaze, Yun Duo bowed her head somewhat uneasily. Her gaze dropped to his chest. Crystal clear droplets of water flowed slowly down his broad and firm pectoral muscles. Instinctively, Yun Duo's gaze chased after the moving droplets of water as they travelled down slowly. The water droplets trickled across his tight abdominal muscles. White skin encased the firm and well-proportioned muscles — they were as neat and beautiful as white chocolate, but also contained brimming power.

For the first time in her life, Yun Duo observed a man's abdomen at such close range. She felt a surge of panic, guiltily shifting her gaze away, coincidentally catching sight of the indistinct line of his Adonis belt人鱼线: Fun fact: In Chinese, the Adonis belt is called the 'mermaid's line', since the converging lines in an Adonis belt looks like the tapered end of a fish. at the edges of his black swimming trunks.

"Ahem." She felt heat creeping up her face.

"Hello?" He tilted his head slightly, as if trying to get her attention.

"..." She had already forgotten what she had wanted to ask. Her mind was completely blank.

He was just about to leave when Yun Duo finally recovered and tuned back to the normal wavelength of her brain. She hurriedly looked up at him and blurted, "How did you feel you performed?" Although she managed to ask her question, her emotions were still stuck in the awkward embarrassment of before.

"Not bad."

"Er, well, are you satisfied with your results?" After taking in two deep breaths, Yun Duo felt much calmer.

"Satisfied," he replied simply, then met Yun Duo's eyes as he silently waited for her next question.

His gentle and steady gaze made Yun Duo feel inexplicably flustered. "That ... um, after this ... what are your training goals?" She finally managed to throw out another question. She felt that these questions of hers were really too weak! She looked down on herself!

He did not reply, merely smiling gently. His smile made his eyes even more vivid — his sparkling eyes with their raised corners brought to mind the frivolous playboys who seduced the innocent maidens from upstanding families. And yet his gaze was very pure and clean, so clean that it was hard to think badly of it.

Yun Duo felt ashamed of her low-level questions. The little bit of confidence she had left had dissipated. She felt as if she were a soldier who had taken to the field in full armour, only to be defeated even before she could clash swords with anyone. How disgraceful! Helplessly, she could only say with a red face, "I'm sorry. This is my first interview."

"That's alright. I also have not been interviewed for a long time."

This reply was a little strange, but Yun Duo did not probe. She scratched her head and asked, "May I know what your name is?"

This was not a very polite question. After exchanging quite a few questions and answers before this, to find out that the other did not even know who you were ... it was really too hurtful. Yun Duo immediately regretted the question the moment she asked it.

What a pig-brain she was! How could she ask such a question?! Her performance today was truly horrible! ~~~~(>_<)~~~~

Surprisingly, he did not react with displeasure but instead replied earnestly, "I'm called Tang Yi-Bai."

Yun Duo was still mired in embarrassment. Her head was bowed; she did not want to speak anymore.

"Good luck. You're the first person to interview me in recent years." He paused, as if recalling something, his expression turning slack for a brief instant. Then, he reached out his hand to pass something to her. "This is a memento for you. Please accept it."

It was his goggles. Yun Duo thought that he was probably using this method to console her. Her heart warmed, and her anxiety eased significantly. Still ... this gentleman was really too generous ...

She did not want to accept someone else's things so casually, but she saw that his gaze was bright with sincerity, with none of the pride one typically had when plying others with things. She found that she could not say anything to refuse his gift at that moment, so she could only bite the bullet and accept the goggles. "Thank you ... you're the first person I've officially interviewed, so I would also like to give you something to commemorate the occasion."

"Okay," he readily agreed.

Yun Duo moved to rifle through her backpack, but then recalled that her backpack was still with Teacher Sun. A bad feeling stole over her heart. She could only start digging through the pockets of the clothes she was wearing, growing increasingly more embarrassed the more she searched, for all of her pockets were empty ... in the end, she only managed to scrounge up a tea egg from the pocket of her jacket. A humble and unassuming tea egg.

Yun Duo's head hung low as she looked at the tea egg with a long face.

And then she heard him laugh, his voice slow and deep. His laughter tapped lightly on her eardrums, extremely pleasant to the ear. However, Yun Duo was in no mood to appreciate the pleasant sound. Right now, all she wanted to do was to go off and die.

A fair hand reached over to take her tea egg away. The melodious laughter continued. "Thank you," he said, pausing to sweep his gaze across the media pass on her chest, "Yun Duo."

Yun Duo stood with her hands splayed, still like a statue for a good long while. By the time Teacher Sun came to look for her, all of the athletes had already left. Teacher Sun patted Yun Duo on the shoulder and said a few words of comfort. Yun Duo raised her head to look around in bewilderment. Finally, her gaze landed on the huge electronic screen where the results of the previous race was still being displayed.

First place, Tang Yi-Bai. Time: 48.52 seconds.

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Next: Chapter 2: Chance Encounters and Fate

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